The present invention relates to an extending type of display apparatus of which a screen can be extended by connecting a plurality of display units each having the same configuration to each other as well as to a display system using the extending type of display apparatus, and more specifically to an extending type of display apparatus of which a size and a shape of the screen can freely and easily be constructed as well as to a display system using the same.
In recent years, a display unit such as any display for a television, a monitor, or a personal computer has a larger size and higher resolution. Also the dominating display unit is changing from a CRT to a liquid crystal display unit as well as to a plasma display panel, which has made it possible to make thinner a display unit.
Especially, with progress in the multimedia technology, importance of a display unit is increasing and a demand for a larger sized-screen with higher resolution is becoming increasingly stronger as an indispensable item for accessing the cyber space.
A display unit is used in various cases, so that portability thereof is one of the important elements, and there are increasing use""s demands for a display unit which is compact in size for carrying and which has a large-sized screen as well as high resolution when it is assembled, and for a display unit of which the screen can be assembled in an arbitrary size as required, or the like.
According to the conventional type of display unit, however, although progress for larger size and higher resolution thereof has been made, there are some problems as described below because in general, an entire screen of the display unit is manufactured as one unit at the time of manufacturing excluding some large-sized display panel provided on a building as one of facilities thereof such as an electric bulletin board or a sky sign for advertisement.
Firstly, a user can not freely change or select a size of the screen of the display unit.
Secondly, when a user wants to install a display unit with a large-sized screen, the display unit with a screen larger than the size of an entrance of a room can not be carried into the room, so that the display unit can practically be put under restrictions by a size of the entrance thereof.
Thirdly, the display unit having a large-sized screen is inconvenient to carry.
Also an image transmitting system in the conventional type of display unit works based on a scanning line system for continuously transmitting image data at prespecified resolution and the number of scanning lines, and can not basically support cases where the resolution (the number of display elements in the horizontal direction) and the number of scanning lines (the number of display elements in the vertical direction) are changed by arbitrally changing a size of the screen, and for this reason, the manufacturers could hardly think of any idea that a size of a screen could freely be changed by users themselves.
For example, even if resolution (the number of display elements in the horizontal direction) and the number of scanning lines (the number of display elements in the vertical direction) are increased by making the size of the screen larger, the resolution and the number of scanning lines each constituting the image data transmitted in the scanning line system are the same as the original ones, so that an image display using the entire screen is impossible. Also, when the image is to be displayed, the display thereof is performed using a portion of the screen according to the resolution and the number of scanning lines of the transmitted image data. In other words, it is impossible to increase resolution of any image displayed on the screen even if the size of the screen is made larger.
Also, if resolution (the number of display elements in the horizontal direction) and the number of scanning lines (the number of display elements in the vertical direction) are decreased by making the size of the screen smaller, for example, the resolution and the number of scanning lines each constituting the image data transmitted in the scanning line system are still the same as the original ones, so that all the transmitted image data can not be displayed on the screen. In other words, any display unit with a smaller screen results in displaying thereon a portion of the display unit with the larger screen (an image trimmed according to a size of a screen).
It is an object of the present invention to provide an extending type of display apparatus of which a size of the screen can freely and easily be changed by a user and resolution can also be increased or decreased according to the size of the screen as well as a display system using the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an extending type of display apparatus which can display thereon a transmitted image data whatever the size of the screen may be as well as a display system using the same.
With an extending type of display apparatus according to the present invention, the screen can be extended by connecting a plurality of display units each having the same configuration to each other; the display unit comprises a plurality of display elements arrayed in a matrix, a controller for controlling each display state of each of the plurality of display elements, a storing section for storing therein each address information for each of the display elements in the screen, a signal transmitting section for signal transaction between the controller and an external device or any other display units, and a power transmitting section for supplying power to the plurality of display elements, controller, storing section, and the signal transmitting section; the power transmitting section can electrically be connected, when a plurality of display units are connected to each other, to power transmitting sections of any display units adjacent to the power transmitting section; the signal transmitting section can execute, when a plurality of display units are connected to each other, signal transaction with signal transmitting sections of any display units adjacent to the signal transmitting section; and each controller for each of the plurality of display units executes, when a plurality of display units are connected to each other, signal transaction with controllers of any other display units adjacent to the controller through the signal transmitting section, recognizes a size of the screen obtained by connecting a plurality of the display units to each other as well as a position of the unit in the screen, and generates each address information for each display element in the screen according to the position of the unit to be stored in the storing section, so that a user can freely and easily change a size of the screen, and the resolution can be increased or decreased according to the size thereof.
Other objects and features of this invention will become understood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.